Three East Lancashire railway thefts 'cost operators £1million' (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Three East Lancashire railway thefts 'cost operators £1million'

8:50am Friday 30th April 2010 in Rosegrove By David Watkinson, Deputy news editor

TRAIN services in East Lancashire were brought to a standstill for the third time in a month after yet another swoop by metal thieves.

Bosses said the overall disruption had cost operators more than £1million.

They are now looking at employing a private security firm to patrol the line.

Yesterday the thieves risked their lives stealing around 20 metres of 650-volt signalling power cables at around 8am between Rosegrove in Burnley and Hapton.

It caused chaos, stopping all trains on the Northern Rail service between Blackburn and Colne for nine hours until 5pm.

There were also problems with services all the way from Leeds to Blackpool.

Network Rail, which operates the tracks, said that yesterday’s incident alone will have cost it more than £500,000 because of expensive repair bills and compensation it is bound to pay train operators when services are cancelled.

The incident yesterday differed from recent thefts because, instead of stealing copper signalling cable, live aluminium power cable was taken.

Aluminium has a much lower scrap value that copper.

Rail chiefs said that unless the thieves were electricians then they were taking a huge risk with their lives.

Keith Lumley from Network Rail said: “The cost of this incident will run in to hundreds of thousands of pounds for us and considering there have been three in just a few weeks we are looking at a bill of well over £1million.

“It causes us a massive problem and because it is virtually impossible to police the whole line. We are in a very difficult situation.

“Cable theft is a dangerous activity. Some cable can carry extremely high voltage and we have seen a number of cases in which thieves have been seriously injured, suffering extensive burns, after cutting through live cable.

"Five trains were trapped between stations unable to move because of the thefts.

"And hundreds more people were stuck at stations unable to get their trains."

He said measures including private security and mobile CCTV cameras could now be deployed in the area.

The incident was discovered at around 8am when a train driver reported a signalling failure.

It is the third incident within a similar area with the previous incidents taking place in the vicinity of Manchester Road station in Burnley.

Police said the thefts seemed to be moving in sequence along the line towards Accrington.

Replacement buses were put in place between Blackburn and Colne, adding 50 minutes to journies.

Incidents took place early on Tuesday, April 13, and on Wednesday, March 31, more than 100 metres of signal cabling was stolen.

Detective Chief Inspector Malcolm McKinnon, from British Transport Police, pledged to step up patrols.

He said: “We are currently reviewing several of the incidents reported to us in the past few weeks and will be seeking to gather as much forensic evidence as possible.

“We will also be out and about visiting scrap yards in the area as most cable thieves look for the quickest way to sell on the stolen goods – scrapyards are one such method.”

Freefone 0800 40 50 40 quoting incident 88 of 29/04/10 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.